The Birth Pains of Prophecy July 24, 2014
By
Frank DiMora P.O. Box 732, Lompoc Ca. 93436 fjdimora@gmail.com
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“Do not keep silent, O God! Do not hold Your peace, And do not be still, O God! 2 For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; And those who hate You have lifted up their head. 3 They have taken crafty counsel against Your people, And consulted together against Your sheltered ones. 4 They have said, “Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more.”
Listed below are the nations which will attack Israel from Ezekiel chapter 38 and their modern day names (see chart above).
Gog is the leader of the Russian invasion of Israel.
Magog, Meshech, and Tubal comprise modern day Russia.
Persia is Iran, parts of northern Iraq, and Afghanistan.
Cush is Ethiopia and Sudan.
Put is Libya and will most likely include Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco.
Gomer is Eastern Germany.
Beth Togarmah is Turkey and Armenia.
Israeli Islamist Leader: Gaza Will Rub Israel’s Nose in the Mud
Qatar Friday Sermon: Allah, Kill the Jews, Freeze the Blood in Their Veins
Headline: Israel Swears in New President Amid Gaza War
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres ended his term as president of Israel on Thursday — a man who symbolizes hopes for peace capping a seven-decade public career amid the brutal reality of war. Peres handed the ceremonial but high-profile presidency over to Reuven Rivlin, a legislator from the hawkish Likud Party. Although the globe-trotting elder statesman has made clear he has no intention to retire, few expect him to hold public office again, after a career that dates back to the 1940s and has seen him occupy almost every major government position in the land. “I did not imagine that in the last days of my presidency I would be called upon, once more, to comfort bereaved families,” Peres, 90, said in his speech at the handover ceremony. He blamed the Islamic militant group Hamas for starting the current war by firing barrages of rockets at Israel, but also emphasized that “Israel is not the enemy of the people of Gaza.” Rivlin’s theme was similar: “We are not fighting against the Palestinian people, and we are not at war with Islam,” he said. “We are fighting against terrorism.” In sharp contrast to Peres, however, Rivlin has long been an opponent of efforts to establish a Palestinian state.
July 24, 2014
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/israel-swears-president-amid-gaza-war-24697247
Headline: Israel surprised by number, sophistication of Gaza tunnels
While rockets and mortar fly through the sky in Gaza and southern Israel, the focus of the Jewish state’s military is underground, on the warren of tunnels they say allow Hamas operatives to move freely in and out of the Palestinian territory committing acts of terror. Pictures released by the Israel Defense Forces show tunnels, some primitive and others sophisticated enough to include walls and ladders, running under the border from the Hamas-controlled district before they were intentionally destroyed. More than 60 access shafts leading to 28 tunnels have been uncovered since Israel’s ground operation — dubbed Operation Protective Edge — began on July 8.
July 24, 2014
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/07/24/israel-surprised-by-number-sophistication-gaza-tunnels/
Headline: Source of deadly attack on Gaza UNRWA school remains unclear
Headline: US defends aid to UNRWA despite rocket caches
The source of a deadly attack on a United Nations-run school in Gaza on Thursday remain unclear, with the Palestinians blaming Israel for the deaths, and the Israeli army saying it does not know whether Israeli shelling or a Hamas rocket hit the facility, killing a reported 15 people. The Israeli army says the army fired mortars in the area of the UNRWA school in Gaza after Israeli troops were shot at from the area of the school. Palestinian sources said 15 people were killed when the school in Beit Hanoun was hit Thursday afternoon. However, army spokesperson Moti Almoz told Israel’s Channel 2 on Thursday evening that the military does not know whether it was Israel Defense Forces fire that hit the school. An IDF source said that army representatives made contact with UNRWA and the Red Cross over the past few days to inform them that troops were shot at from near the school, and that the IDF would return fire toward the source of the shooting, which was located near the school. The IDF stated that Hamas rockets had landed in the Beit Hanoun area during fighting with its forces, and that those rockets may be responsible for the deaths. The IDF Spokesman later issued a statement that it is investigating the matter of the hit on the school. Terrorists opened fire at IDF personnel from the area of the school, according to the spokesman, and soldiers returned fire toward the source of the shooting. Likewise, stated the spokesman, Hamas fired at the school, and despite repeated warnings and appeals to international authorities to remove civilians from these areas of fighting, they were not evacuated.
July 24, 2014
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.607138
http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-defends-aid-to-unwra-despite-rocket-caches/
Headline: Hamas official: We have the ability to continue this campaign for many more months
Headline: Netanyahu: Gaza Operation to Continue ‘At Full Strength’
A source Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades told the Hezbollah affiliated Al-Akhbar newspaper that Hamas military wing has the ability and the strength to continue conducting this campaign for months. We informed Hamas leadership to not compromise on any of the ceasefire clauses regarding the opening of the border crossings and lifting the blockade. It was expressed clearly in Khaled Mashal speech,” he said. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu opened a special cabinet meeting at the Knesset in Jerusalem Thursday by vowing that the IDF’s defensive operation in Gaza would continue “at full strength”. “The IDF has struck a significant blow to Hamas,” the prime minister said, adding that “we will continue at full strength in both the air campaign and land campaign.” Netanyahu said that the main emphasis of the IDF operation was to locate and destroy the vast network of “terror tunnels” dug by Hamas from Gaza into Israel in order to facilitate attacks against Israeli security forces and civilians.
July 24, 2014
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4549210,00.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183310#.U9F2hLEzJJk
Headline: Rocket Fired at Eilat Area, Possiby Aiming for Ovda Airport
Gaza Arab terrorists continued firing rockets at Israel Thursday night, with a rocket fired at Eilat. The Iron Dome system intercepted the rocket. No one was injured and there was no damage from the resulting shrapnel. It’s possible the terrorists ware aiming not for Eilat, but for the Ovda Airport outside the city, where some international flights had been rerouted after the US Federal Aviation Administration banned US airlines from flying to Ben Gurion Airport. Hundreds of flights were canceled as European airlines followed the FAA’s lead. In response, the Transport Ministry opened Ovda to accommodate planes, especially those that had been flown out to destinations in Europe to allow Israelis to return home. On Thursday, the FAA rescinded the ban.
July 24, 2014
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183325#.U9FzD7EzJJk
Headline: More Arab Rioting in Jerusalem Thursday
Headline: 1 said killed in widespread rioting outside Jerusalem
Headline: Arab Rioting in Judea, Samaria Continues; Nine Arrested
As fighting continues to rage in Gaza, Arabs in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria continued to riot. On Thursday, police arrested two Arabs near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem after they attacked police with rocks and stones. Police broke up the riot using water cannons and other anti-riot methods. In another incident, dozens of Arab youths tried to break through a police barrier. Police broke up that riot and arrested three rioters for attacking police. At the same time, dozens of Arabs gather near the Old City and tried to destroy a police barrier there as well. Three more Arabs were arrested at the Flower Gate in the Old City. Altogether, 12 Arabs were arrested in Jerusalem Thursday. The rioting Thursday was a continuation of unrest that has been continuing since the murder of Arab youth Mohammed Abu-Khder last month.Hundreds of Arabs rioted overnight Wednesday in five locations throughout the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Judea-Samaria: Beit Ummar, Abu Dis, Rachel’s Tomb (Bethlehem), Husan, and Clock Square in Binyamin. The rioters threw rocks, Molotov cocktails, and burning tires at security forces, who were dispatched to disperse the crowd with riot control measures.
July 24, 2014
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183324#.U9FzjbEzJJk
http://www.timesofisrael.com/1-said-killed-in-widespread-riots-outside-jerusalem/
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183289#.U9F3-rEzJJk
Headline: Kerry Reaches out to Hamas Allies to Press Truce
US Secretary of State John Kerry spoke Thursday to his counterparts in Qatar and Turkey, which support the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as he pressed for a Gaza ceasefire. A day after he flew to Israel and cited signs of progress, Kerry was hunkered down in Egypt – which drafted a truce proposal to end the Israel-Hamas conflict that was rejected by Hamas – as he reached out to regional officials by telephone, aides said. The top US diplomat spoke to the foreign ministers of Qatar and Turkey in the hope that the two countries would use their influence to encourage Hamas to accept a ceasefire plan, which the terrorist group has so far rejected, a US official said. Kerry also spoke again with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, after meeting him for two hours late Wednesday in Tel Aviv. Unlike previous days, Kerry did not make any public appearances as new violence raged in the Gaza Strip. Overnight IDF forces struck 90 terrorist targets and discovered several “terror tunnels” into Israel.
July 24, 2014
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183317#.U9FzxbEzJJk
Headline: Strike hits shelter in Gaza, U.N. official says- CAUTION DISTURBING VIDEO-NOT PRO-ISRAEL
A strike on a U.N. shelter in northern Gaza on Thursday killed and injured multiple people, a United Nations spokesman said. The coordinates of the school in Beit Hanoun, which was serving a shelter for families in Gaza, had been given to the Israeli military, said the spokesman, Chris Gunness. The United Nations said many people had been killed, including women and children. A statement issued by Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. secretary-general, said U.N. staff also had died in the incident, but later Thursday U.N. officials said no staff had been killed.
July 24, 2014
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/24/world/meast/mideast-crisis/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
Headline: Pakistan Calls to End Gaza Blockade
Pakistan on Thursday called for an immediate end to the blockade of Gaza to allow humanitarian relief to reach Palestinians as the death toll in the besieged territory rose to more than 740. The appeal came a day after Pakistan voted along with other UN Human Rights Council members to launch a probe into Israel’s offensive in the territory, with rights chief Navi Pillay saying the Jewish state’s military actions could amount to war crimes. The 47-member council backed a Palestinian-drafted resolution by 29 votes, with Arab and fellow Muslim countries joined by China and Russia, plus Latin American and African nations. “The blockade of Gaza must be ended in order to allow access of any humanitarian assistance,” Pakistan’s most senior foreign office bureaucrat Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry told a press briefing. “And that is why even in the UN Security Council and later in UN Human Rights Council we called for humanitarian pauses,” Chaudhry said. “Unless this blockade is lifted we cannot send any relief assistance,” he continued.
July 24, 2014
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183311#.U9F0DLEzJJk
Headline: Hamas fired a rocket at Israel from this cemetery in Jabalya, Gaza
https://twitter.com/IDFSpokesperson
Headline: France to Give $14.8 Million to Gaza
Headline: EU Makes €15.5 Million Contribution to PA’s Payment of July Salaries and Pensions
President Francois Hollande announced on Thursday an 11-million-euro ($14.8 million) aid package to Gaza, citing the need to rebuild as Israel’s self-defense operation shows no sign of stopping after over two weeks, AFP reports. An advisor to Hollande said the humanitarian aid, eight million of which will be given to the Palestinian Authority and the remainder to UN bodies and NGOs working in Gaza, was approved after a meeting with non-governmental organizations working in the strife-torn region.
July 24, 2014
http7-24-14://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183301#.U9F2w7EzJJk
http://english.wafa.ps/index.php?action=detail&id=25998
Headline: UN Session on Gaza: Dictatorships Try to Silence UN Watch
In an emergency session of the UN’s Human Rights Council Wednesday, Israel came under attack from UNHRC head Navi Pillay for possible “war crimes,” and from dictatorial regimes including Iran (which denounced Israel for alleged “state terror”), Syria (which said Israel harbored “a racist and criminal mentality”), Venezuela (which spoke of “attempts to exterminate the Palestinian people”) Algeria and Sudan (both of which said Israel was engaged in “massacres and genocide”). UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer, a staunch defender of Israel against UN bias, told those assembled that all of Israel is under “brutal and relentless” attack. “Never before in the history of Israel’s seven decades of existence have its men women and children come under such a massive aerial assault,” said Neuer, “and never before in the history of nations has a free society come under such a sustaimned bombardment from a terrorist organization.” He was interrupted by the representatives of Iran, Syria, Egypt, “Palestine,” Cuba and Venezuela, who tried to silence him, but was defended by the U.S., Canada and Israel.
July 24, 2014
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183294#.U9F3krEzJJk
Headline: Websites Of Hamas’ Military Wing – The ‘Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades
http://www.memri.org/report/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/8087.htm
Jordan
Headline: Jordan proposes ceasefire resolution at UN Security Council
Headline: Jordan King to meet with Abbas
His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday called for an immediate ceasefire of the Israeli aggression in Gaza, cautioning against the consequences of the catastrophic campaign in the region, according to a Royal Court statement. Meanwhile, at the UN Security Council, Jordan on Tuesday submitted a draft resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, protection for civilians and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza. The draft text, seen by AFP, calls for lifting the Israeli blockade of Gaza and renewed efforts to achieve a two-state peace deal for Israel and Palestine. During a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is visiting Jordan as part of a regional trip in an attempt to push for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, King Abdullah highlighted Jordan’s contacts with various Arab, regional and concerned international parties and through its membership in the UN Security Council to push for passing the draft resolution. At the meeting, King Abdullah asserted Jordan’s support for the Egyptian initiative to arrive at a ceasefire as soon as possible, underlining the need to rally international support for it. King Abdullah strongly condemned the Israeli aggression and urged the international community to shoulder its responsibility to secure protection for the Palestinian people, provide them with medical and humanitarian aid, and support Jordan’s efforts by facilitating aid delivery and the treatment of the wounded people of Gaza.
July 23, 2014
http://jordantimes.com/jordan-proposes-ceasefire-resolution-at-un-security-council
http://en.ammonnews.net/article.aspx?articleno=26150#.U9F-0bEzJJk
Headline: Local Jordanian Salafi group pledges allegiance to Islamic State ISIS
A local Jordanian Salafi group pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on Wednesday, while denouncing al-Qaida leaders as illegitimate. The Jordan Times reported that the Sons of the Call for Tawhid and Jihad, a youth movement, criticized Salafi leader Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Maqdisi – who has come out against ISIS but supports al-Qaida – and Abu Qatada, a radical cleric who was extradited from Britain last year, for refusing to recognize the Islamic caliphate of the Islamic State. The group demanded that Maqdisi “return to righteousness.” The influential Jordanian cleric warned earlier this month that the Islamic State’s declaration of a caliphate in Iraq and Syria would deepen already bloody infighting among jihadists.
July 24, 2014
Lebanon
Headline: Iranian official in Beirut to discuss Gaza
Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister for Arab Affairs Hussein Amir Abdul Allahaan is due to discuss the situation in Gaza and the region with Lebanese officials, a report said Thursday. The short report published by the local newspaper As-Safir said Allahaan is due in Beirut later Thursday.
July 24, 2014
Egypt
Headline: Egypt army prevents 2 attacks on Israel near border
Egyptian military sources said that Egyptian troops killed a “suicide bomber” who tried to approach the Israeli border near Kerem Shalom military base on the border on Wednesday night. The sources told Ma’an that the army also destroyed a vehicle loaded with Grad missiles shortly before they were launched towards Israeli territory. The vehicle was spotted in Sheikh Zuweid in the North Sinai district before it was hit by artillery shells, killing two individuals inside. According to the sources, the “suicide bomber” carried an explosive device in addition to an explosive belt on his body. He was shot dead while running towards the border with Israel south of Rafah in what they said was an attempt to reach an Israeli military base in Kerem.
July 24, 2014
http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=64459
Syria
Headline: Iranian elite forces re-take gas field from ISIL in Syria
Syria has deployed Iranian combat units to recapture a major energy field in the north. Opposition sources said Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has been summoned to battle Al Qaida fighters in Syria. They said IRGC deployed hundreds of elite troops to expel Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant from a natural gas field in the Homs province. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that IRGC conducted rocket and ground operations against ISIL around the Homs gas field. The monitoring group said IRGC was called in to help the Syrian Army, which underwent losses of hundreds of troops.
July 24, 2014
http://www.worldtribune.com/2014/07/24/syria-summons-iranian-elite-forces-re-take-gas-field-isil/
Headline: Jihadists launch broad assault on Syria army
The jihadist Islamic State group launched multiple attacks on government-held territory across northern and northeastern Syria on Thursday, a monitoring group said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it was the first time that IS, accused by rival rebel groups of focusing its formidable firepower more on them than on the Damascus regime, had launched such coordinated assaults on army positions. The jihadists went on the offensive near the main northern city of Aleppo, in Hasakeh province in the northeast and in Raqa province around their Euphrates valley stronghold, the Observatory said. IS has been buoyed by sweeping victories north and west of Baghdad last month that prompted it to declare a pan-Islamic state straddling Iraq and Syria. In Hasakeh province, the jihadists killed 11 soldiers in an attack on an army base, the Observatory said. They also launched a brazen assault on the ruling Baath party provincial headquarters in Hasakeh city, over which witnesses said they saw the IS flag flying. The mainly Kurdish city has remained under government control, although much of the surrounding countryside is under the control of Kurdish militia who have also been battling the jihadists.
July 24, 2014
Headline: Global deaths by terrorism up 30 percent in past 12 months
Terrorist-related deaths around the world have increased by 30 percent in the past 12 months, a British report says. Data compiled by Maplecroft — a Bath, England, risk analysis company — noted the increase compared to an average of global terrorist deaths in the past five years. “Maplecroft’s Terrorism and Security Dashboard (MTSD),” covering incidents in 197 countries, noted Iraq has had the most attacks in the past year, 3,158. Nigeria’s are the most deadly, with an average of 24 deaths per attack, and the most significant increases in terrorism have occurred in China, Egypt, Kenya and Libya. Analysts found 18,668 deaths by terrorism in the 12 months prior to July 1, 2014, a 29.3 percent increase in the five-year average of 14,443.
July 24, 2014
Russia
Headline: EU blacklists more Russians, prepares economic sanctions
EU ambassadors in a marathon meeting on Thursday (24 July) added 15 more individuals, nine companies and nine institutions from Russia and east Ukraine to an existing blacklist of 72 individuals and two firms linked to the annexation of Crimea. The names will be published on Friday afternoon in the bloc’s Official Journal. They are expected to include eastern Ukrainian separatists believed to be responsible for the downing of the Malaysia Airlines plane – a disaster which killed 298 people, mostly EU citizens. The ambassadors also agreed to change the legal parameters of the blacklist, so that cronies and oligarchs close to Russian President Vladimir Putin can be designated in future. The day-long meeting also looked at a raft of economic sanctions proposed by the European Commission, which could be adopted next week if Russia does not change course on Ukraine.
July 24, 2014
http://euobserver.com/foreign/125100
Headline: Ukrainian prime minister resigns
Headline: US to send military advisers to Ukraine
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has handed in his resignation to protest the disbanding of the ruling coalition party. “I am announcing my resignation in connect with the collapse of the coalition,” Yatsenyuk said in Ukraine’s parliament on Thursday. He also said the parliament was no longer capable of doing its work or passing necessary laws. Yatsenyuk’s resignation came as several parties have withdrawn from the majority European Choice coalition in anticipation of early parliamentary polls. Earlier today Yatseniuk said the country will slap sanctions on Russia over what he called Moscow’s support for pro-Russia forces in the east. Yatseniuk has repeatedly accused Moscow of funding and supporting the forces, a claim Russia denies.
July 24, 2014
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/24/372628/ukrainian-prime-minister-resigns/
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/07/24/372559/us-to-send-military-advisers-to-ukraine/
Headline: Obama administration: Russia firing artillery at Ukraine military targets
Obama administration officials said Thursday that Russia is firing artillery from its own territory into Ukraine to hit Ukrainian military sites, pointing to escalating Russian involvement in the deadly conflict. State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf also claimed Moscow is boosting its military shipments to pro-Russian separatists. “We have new evidence that the Russians intend to deliver heavier and more powerful multiple rocket launchers to separatist forces in Ukraine and have evidence that Russia is firing artillery from within Russian to attack Ukrainian military positions,” Harf told reporters.
July 24, 2014
Iran
Headline: We gave Hamas rocket know-how, Iran boasts
Iran provided Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas with the technology it has used to rain down rockets on Israel from Gaza, its parliament speaker says. Tehran frequently boasts of the financial and material support it gives to Palestinian terror groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, but more rarely talks of its military assistance. “Today, the fighters in Gaza have good capabilities and can meet their own needs for weapons,” speaker Ali Larijani tells the Arabic service of state television. “But once upon a time, they needed the arms manufacture know-how and we gave it to them,” he says. During the last major conflict in and around Gaza in November 2012, Larijani said Iran was “proud” to have provided “both financial and military support” to Hamas.
July 24, 2014
IraqHeadline: Militants ‘kill 60’ in ambush on Iraq prison convoy
Headline: ISIS suspected in attack on Iraqi prisoner convoy
Headline: Iraq elects new president as attacks kill dozens
Suicide attackers have mounted a bomb and gun attack on a prison convoy in Iraq, killing 51 prisoners and nine police officers, security sources say. Roadside bombs exploded as the convoy was taking the prisoners from the town of Taji to the capital Baghdad 24km (15 miles) away, justice ministry and medical sources told Reuters. Gunmen opened fire and a battle ensued with security forces, AFP reports. It is thought the prisoners were being evacuated at the time. The prisoners, who were suspected militants, were put in a convoy after mortar rounds hit military bases in Taji at dawn on Thursday, Iraqi officials told AP, speaking on condition of anonymity. Militants affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria were suspected in an attack against an Iraqi Security Forces
July 24, 2014
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28459360
http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-elects-president-attacks-kill-dozens-191342642.html
ISIS
Headline: ‘We’re coming for you, Barack Obama’: Top U.S. official discloses threat from ISIL
High-ranking U.S. officials said Wednesday that not only are Sunni radicals with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant “worse than al Qaeda,” but that the group has a message for the president: “We’re coming for you, Barack Obama.” Brett McGurk, the deputy assistant secretary of state, told lawmakers at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that ISIL may have “changed its name,” but that it’s still al Qaeda.
July 24, 2014
http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/jul/23/isil-threatens-obama-top-us-official-discloses/
Headline: ISIS orders genital mutilation of all Iraqi women
Jihadists in Iraq have ordered that all women between the ages of 11 and 46 must undergo female genital mutilation, which could affect up to four million women and girls in the war-ravaged country, a UN official said Thursday. The UN’s second most senior official in Iraq, Jacqueline Badcock, said, “It is a fatwa (or religious edict) from ISIS, we learnt about it this morning. We have no precise numbers.” The Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), took over large swathes of the country last month and has begun imposing its extreme Salafist interpretation of Islam. Badcock said that if you took UN population figures as a guide, around “four million girls and women could be affected”.
July 24, 2014
Headline: ISIS attacks besieged army base in Raqqa
Fighters from ISIS stormed parts of a besieged army base in Raqqa province Thursday, setting off clashes that left dozens killed or wounded on both sides. The assault, which began shortly after midnight, came a week after ISIS fighters captured a gas field in the central province of Homs, an attack that left more than 200 people dead. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime group, said the assault began with two suicide car bomb attacks. It added that Syrian army helicopters attacked ISIS positions around the base, known as Division 17. By the end of the day, a total of 14 airstrikes had targeted the vicinity of Raqqa, and a Syrian general had been killed in the clashes, the Observatory said. The Local Coordination Committees, another activist group, reported 12 raids around Division 17 and the nearby provincial capital of Raqqa, which has been controlled by ISIS since last year. It said army helicopters were dropping barrel bombs around the base. The Observatory said the fighting left 35 ISIS fighters dead and dozens of government forces dead or wounded, including six soldiers who were beheaded.
July 24, 2014
Without going into too much detail, I’d like to share something I just heard and witnessed. While watching one of multiple live feeds from Gaza, it was announced that ISIS had “liberated” Raqqa- not attacked- liberated. The Palestinians began to cheer.
Libya
Headline: Rival Libyan militias clash in Tripoli, Benghazi
Heavy black smoke rose over southern Tripoli on Thursday after rival militias exchanged artillery and rocket fire in a battle over the Libyan capital’s airport that has killed more than 50 people in nearly a fortnight of fighting. Sporadic blasts echoed across the city from the morning in clashes that have deepened fears of post-war Libya becoming a failed state, with a fragile government unable to control heavily armed brigades battling for power. Fighting in the capital and the eastern city of Benghazi is the heaviest since the 2011 war that ousted Muammar Gaddafi. It has closed most international flights to Libya and has prompted the United States to pull out embassy staff. A health ministry official in Tripoli was unable to provide details of Thursday’s casualties because he could not contact hospital staff in the area. One local doctor said at least 30 injured people were at his Tripoli hospital on Wednesday.
July 24, 2014
http://newsdaily.com/2014/07/24/rival-libyan-militias-clash-in-tripoli-benghazi/
Turkey
Headline: Growing number of Turkish universities boycotting Israel
Headline: Erdogan says Israel should face trial over Gaza assault
A growing number of Turkish universities have decided to cut off relations with Israeli universities, with the number rising to 111 in three days. Originally, the rectors of 87 Turkish universities announced in a joint statement on Sunday that they would cut off all academic, cultural, and social ties with their Israeli counterparts, if they do not condemn Israeli actions in Gaza, the Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak reported on Wednesday. “In Gaza, there has been a great tragedy of humanity. The whole world is not reacting to it as if they were all deaf and blind. The Israeli government has lost its discernment and attack cruelly by putting the children in front of guns,” read the public announcement. “In Ramadan, the holy month of Islamic world, people are having their iftar meal through the bombs with tears, grief and sorrow. Unfortunately, everyone, who closes their eyes to these cruel people and this kind of cruelty, is a sharer of that violence,” it said.
July 24, 2014
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Growing-number-of-Turkish-universities-boycotting-Israel-368820
Headline: Turkey sends reinforcements to Syrian border in fight with Kurdish fighters
Turkey has expanded operations to the Kurdish enclave in neighboring Syria. The Turkish Army has deployed reinforcements along the border of the Kurdish enclave in northern Syria. Officials said the reinforcements were meant to stop the flow of Kurdish fighters from Iraq to reach the Syrian enclave. “The Kurdish Workers Party has sent in hundreds of fighters to help the Syrian Kurds battle the Islamists,” an official said. On July 22, the Army reported a battle with Kurdish militias in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa. The Army said three soldiers and six Kurdish fighters, including those from the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, were killed on July 21 as the latter sought to cross the Syrian border. “At least six members of People’s Defense Forces and PKK were considered to be killed during the clashes,” the army said. The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has opposed the Kurdish enclave along the Syrian border with Turkey. Officials said the government as well as military feared that the enclave could become another insurgency haven for the PKK war.
July 24, 2014
Germany
Headline: German Gaza protests turn violent, raising anti-Semitism fears
Violence, hate speech, self-immolation: the Middle East conflict has reached Germany, with observers worrying that riots during recent Gaza demonstrations are an expression of deeply rooted anti-Semitism. EurActiv Germany reports. In several German cities, thousands of people have taken to the streets to demonstrate against Israel’s military action on the Gaza Strip. In Hannover, Göttingen and Essen, protestors attacked pro-Israeli counter demonstrators and anti-Semitic slogans were chanted at rallies. The Central Council of Jews in Germany was “shocked” at the “explosion of angry and potentially violent anti-Semitism”. One would “never have considered it possible that anti-Semitic shouts would be heard on German streets and chanted in a most primitive way”, said the Central Council’s president Dieter Graumann. Particularly in the capital city, such occurrences are quite frequent these days.
July 24, 2014
Armenia
Headline: Armenia to become full member of EEU in January: Armenian PM
Armenia will become a full member of the the Eurasian Economic Union on January 1, 2015, Tengrinews reports citing NEWS.am. Prime Minister of Armenia Hovik Abrahamyan announced this on Tuesday, July 22. He added that the agreement on Armenia’s accession into the EEU would be signed in October this year. The Prime Minister emphasized that the delay in signing of the documents on Armenia’s accession had nothing to do with the demand to set up customs checkpoints on the border between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnically dominated Armenian enclave within the Azerbaijani territory. He assured that this delay was due to organizational reasons only, not geopolitical or political ones. The same view was expressed earlier by Sergey Minasyan, Deputy Director of the Caucasus Institute. Hovik Abrahamyan also highlighted that his visit to Sochi, Russia last week and his meeting with Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev had nothing to do with Armenia’s accession process. The main goal of his visit was to meet with the Russian-Armenian businessmen and discuss investments opportunities offered by Armenia. Kazakhstan’s Foreign Minister Yerlan Idrissov also said that the agreement on Armenia’s accession into the EEU would most likely be signed in October 2014 at the meeting of the EEU member-countries’ presidents in Minsk, Belarus.
July 24, 2014
Economic collapse Revelation 6:5-6 & James 5:1-3– Worldwide “ When He opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, “Come and see.” So I looked, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. 6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” (Revelation) “Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.” (James)
Headline: Atlantic City’s Credit Rating Cut 2 Steps to Junk by Moody’s
Atlantic City, New Jersey, the gambling hub that’s been pummeled by regional competition in the U.S. Northeast, had its credit rating cut two levels to speculative grade by Moody’s Investors Service. The reduction to Ba1 from Baa2 on the city’s $245 million of general-obligation debt reflects a weakened tax base resulting from anticipated casino closings, the New York-based ratings company said today in a statement. The outlook remains negative. “The downgrade to Ba1 reflects the city’s significantly weakened tax base, revenue-raising ability and broader economic outlook,” analysts Vito Galluccio and Julie Beglin said in the statement. “These result from ongoing casino revenue declines, expected near-term casino closures, and the impact of sizable casino tax appeals, all of which has stemmed from increased competition from casinos in neighboring states.”
July 23, 2014
Headline: Japan logs biggest 6-month-period trade deficit in 2014
Japan registered a 7,598.4 billion yen deficit in goods trade for the six months through June, the biggest on record for any six-month period, due partly to a surge in imports amid the prolonged halt of nuclear power plants, the government said Thursday. During the first half of 2014, the value of imports rose 10.0 percent on year to 42,648.2 billion yen, with those of liquefied natural gas jumping 11.6 percent and of crude oil increasing 5.1 percent, the Finance Ministry said in a preliminary report.
July 23, 2014
Revelation 6:6- With the bees dying off, you will see a decrease in produce and an INCREASE in food prices!
Headline: July 22, 2014 – Thousands of Bees Die Suddenly in Southern Colorado
http://www.koaa.com/news/thousands-of-bees-die-suddenly-in-southern-colorado/
Pestilence & Plagues Luke 21:11 & Revelation 6:8 “And there will be great earthquakes in various places, and famines and pestilences; and there will be fearful sights and great signs from heaven.” (Luke) “So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death (Thanatos in Greek meaning the death of the body whether natural or violent), and by the beasts of the earth” (Revelation)
Headline: First West Nile Virus death confirmed in Maricopa County
The Maricopa County Department of Public Health has confirmed an East Valley man in his early 60s has died from West Nile virus, the first death this year from the illness. So far this season only three cases of the virus have been reported, according to a statement from the health department. West Nile virus is transmitted through the bite of an infected mosquito and can cause flu-like symptoms, although usually only about 20 percent of those infected will see such symptoms, according to the statement.
July 24, 2014
July 19, 2014 – 50 dead turtles found on a beach in Salinas del Marques, Mexico.
July 22, 2014 – 45 Cows killed by a single lightning strike in Montana, America.
July 22, 2014 – Dozens of water birds found dead in a lake in Manchester, England.
July 22, 2014 – 10,000 fish have died ‘due to drought’ in Giron, Colombia.
July 22, 2014 – Thousands of dead fish found in a river in the Jura Region, France.
July 23, 2014 – 15,000 cattle have died due to drought in various parts of Columbia
July 23, 2014 – Millions of dead fish found floating on a lake in Texas, America.
July 23, 2014 – TONS of fish dead from an oil spill along the Amazon River in Peru.
https://intercontinentalcry.org/amazon-oil-spill-killed-tons-fish-sickened-native-people-24886/
July 23, 2014 – Hundreds of fish and other marine life continue to wash up dead on beaches in Hawaii, America.
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/26086879/brown-water-and-dead-fish-hit-kailua-beach
July 23, 2014 – Hundreds of dead fish found in a dock ‘is a mystery’, in Hull, England.
July 24, 2014 – 100 TONS of fish have died in the River Elbe, in Germany.
July 24, 2014 – Mass fish deaths occuring along a river in Kastamonu, Turkey.
July 24, 2014 – 1,400 dead fish found floating in a lake in Wimbledon, England.
Persecution Matthew 24:9 & Revelation 6:9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.” (Matthew) “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held.” (Revelation)
Headline: Christians face ‘growing harassment’ in post-breakup Sudan
Church properties have been bulldozed and seized in a climate of growing harassment of minority Christians in Islamist-run Sudan since the south’s 2011 independence, its council of churches said. Kori Elramla Kori Kuku, general secretary of the Sudan Council of Churches, told AFP that harassment has been on the rise ever since the separation three years ago of South Sudan, whose population follow mainly Christian and traditional beliefs. He said the Council is concerned after a Sudanese newspaper report that the religious affairs ministry will no longer allow the building of new churches, since most Christians were Southerners who had left. But a senior ruling party official, Rabbie Abdelatti Ebaid, told AFP he was unaware of any such decision. In practice, churches have already faced obstacles, according to Kuku. The Sudan Church of Christ in North Khartoum was “bulldozed” because, according to officials, it lacked legal title to the land, he said. Authorities have also confiscated a building housing the Sudan Interior Church in the central Khartoum Two district, Kuku said at his office. And state security agents last week halted a workshop organised by ALARM, the African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries, Kuku said.
July 24, 2014
Matthew 24:7 “For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. Luke 21:11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.”
Headline: Earthquakes are increasing in the UK: highest level in a decade
New figures show the number of earthquakes recorded in the UK is increasing. The highest level of detections in the last decade is set to be registered for 2014, with 100 earthquakes already recorded in the first three months of the year and 149 in total up until July. This compares to 154 throughout 2013, 64 in 2006 and 111 reported in 2005, 2007 and 2011 – one small tremor, which centered on Jersey and Guernsey in the Channel Islands earlier this month. The quake had a magnitude measuring 4.2, making it the largest in the region for almost 90 years and the tremors were felt all along the south coast of England. The tremor was reported to have registered on British Geological Survey monitoring station equipment in Exeter, Devon. Environmental activists fear the Government’s desire to exploit shale gas reserves in rocks beneath the UK will cause small earthquakes. But ministers believe the technique used to tap into the potential supplies – known as fracking – will bring down energy bills and create thousands of jobs.
July 24, 2014
Headline: Earthquakes Are Rising in Oklahoma, and Insurance Is Booming
Earthquakes used to be rare in Oklahoma, a handful per year or so. Not anymore. So far this year, the state has experienced some 2,300 earthquakes, according to the Oklahoma Geological Survey, an average of more than 11 per day. Accordingly, the number of Oklahomans with earthquake insurance has jumped a startling 500 percent in less than three years, reports the Oklahoma Department of Insurance. While the cause of increased tremors in the Plains States remains under contention, residents, at the least, are preparing for the worst. The state agency doesn’t typically track the data and insurance companies don’t report it, but “we were getting calls from around the country,” says communications director Kerry Collins. So Collins called the state’s top five homeowners insurance companies—accounting for more than 70 percent of the market—and estimated an average: In 2011, only 3 percent of the state’s homeowners had an earthquake rider on their homeowners insurance policies; this year, 15 percent did.
July 23, 2014
Headline: Two die after tornado strikes campground near Cape Charles in Virginia
A National Weather Service meteorologist said two are confirmed dead in the apparent tornado which hit Cherrystone, about 110 miles east of Richmond. The meteorologist, Mike Rusnak, said Northampton County emergency management officials verified that two people died in the 8:30 a.m. storm. Rusnak said 30 people were reported injured. The storm, which produced strong winds and hail — reportedly an inch in diameter — continued as of 11:15 a.m. and lasted for nearly four hours, he said.
July 24, 2014
